TEHRAN, 15 January 2004 — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered hard-liners yesterday to reconsider their disqualification of more than 3,000 electoral candidates, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The move will be seen as a big victory for reformist lawmakers who held sit-in protests in the Parliament building for the past four days. Earlier this week, Khamenei said he would intervene only after the appeal process had been exhausted.

Khamenei met members of the Guardian Council, the body responsible for the disqualifications, yesterday and told them to reconsider, IRNA reported.

For incumbent legislators, of whom more than 80 had been barred from running in the Feb. 20 elections, “the basis of decision should be that (candidates) are authorized to run unless it’s proven otherwise,” Khamenei told the council, according to IRNA. Khamenei had earlier said he would intervene only after normal channels of appeal had been exhausted.

The disqualification of reformist candidates for the elections had provoked protests from the reformist-dominated Parliament, warnings that President Mohammad Khatami’s government may resign, and criticism from the United States and the European Union.

Earlier yesterday, reformist lawmakers rejected a call by Khatami to abandon their four-day sit-in over the disqualifications and began what they promised to be a series of resignations. Khatami had condemned the disqualifications, but asked lawmakers for time to try to get them retracted.

The legislators’ move seemed to reflect a belief that Khatami had limited prospect of getting the hard-liners in government to reverse the disqualifications. Hard-liners have succeeded in thwarting Khatami and his reformist agenda for several years.

“Khatami is sincere, and will do his best, but his promise to reverse the situation is not sufficient,” said Hossein Ansarirad.